• Blas of the Nas in 4 regions, seized 18 tons of expired food
  • Sixteen tons of crayfish expired for six years have been seized in Milan
  • Maxi seizure of expired foods ready to be sold at Christmas
  • The nets seize 800 tons of irregular foods

Share

05 October 2015Inspections in bakeries and bread-making laboratories to verify compliance with sanitary conditions for the preparation, administration and sale of bread and related products. It is the main part of the "Autumn 2015" operation arranged by the Health Minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, and for which the NAS Carabinieri carried out 833 inspections. Irregularities were found in 44% of the cases on total checks.

During the inspections 578 violations were ascertained, mainly of an administrative nature. Therefore, 393 operators have been reported to the competent Authorities (of which 21, referred to the Judicial Authority) and high administrative sanctions for approximately 400 thousand euros.

The most common violations concerned: the hygienic-structural deficiencies; the absence of the sanitary authorization necessary for the bread making activity; the failure to implement the self-control plan; the failure to set up a product traceability system; the irregularity of the labeling and the non-compliance with the specific sector legislation.

Criminal offenses have also been found, such as the detention of food in a poor state of preservation and fraud on the market. The irregularities detected - by number and type - are substantially homogeneous between North, Central and South.

One case in particular - in the province of Lecce - demonstrates the importance of inspections and controls to verify compliance with the rules: in a Salentine bakery precarious hygienic structural conditions and contamination of raw materials and equipment for the massive presence of insects were detected and rodents. The carabinieri of the local NAS proceeded with the immediate suspension of the activity, until the necessary hygiene conditions were restored. The following day the soldiers, during a targeted service, noting that the same bakery was in full operation and that the criticalities detected in the previous inspection remained, seized the factory, whose commercial value is estimated at around 500,000.00 euros , and 540 kg of bakery products. The owner, already struck in the past by a closure order for similar non-compliance, was reported to the local public prosecutor's office for the sale of dirty food.